Sunday, April 27, 2014

It Doesn't Remind Me

The title of this article still makes me chuckle. How could anyone imagine that World War II would not complicate the Pacific Pivot or in general US foreign policy making in Asia?

It was a terrible war in which both sides committed terrible atrocities, both sides then used the events in order to create massive amnesia campaigns, one through self-aggrandizement and liberating potential, the other through victimization and unique suffering, and the most enduring material legacy is a string of bases, like a great wall of Asia, upon which the United States gets to project force and protect its interests. From the US nationalist gaze the events of the war should lead to compliant and subservient allies, to the victor should go all the bases and training areas they want. But this is what happens when nationalisms, both Rightist and Leftist clash, is that ultimately being allies is one thing, but having another nation with its hand in the story of how you organize your collective ideological potency is another.

There's also a Justin Bieber as unintended diplomat of truth in this article which makes it more awesome and interesting.

***************

World War II complicates Obama’s trip to Asia

By Lesley Clark

McClatchy Washington Bureau

Published: April 25, 2014

President
Barack Obama is welcomed by Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko
upon his arrival at the Imperial Palace for the welcoming ceremony in
Tokyo, Japan, April 24, 2014.

Kimimasa Mayama/MCT

TOKYO — Seven decades after it ended, World War II still cuts through the conscience and politics of Asia.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s nationalistic fervor and penchant
for revisionism, as well a visit to a controversial World War II shrine,
anger neighbors China and South Korea. And they alarm the Obama
administration, which wants its two closest allies in the region, Japan
and South Korea, to provide a united front to counter North Korean
aggression.

President Barack Obama last month orchestrated the first-ever meeting
between Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye, ostensibly to talk
about their common antagonist: North Korea.
Yet two days before Obama arrived in Japan on this week’s trip to Asia,
Abe stirred emotions anew when he had a small gift delivered to the
Yasukuni shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead, including 14 war
criminals.

The fealty to the shrine and Abe’s past interest in revisiting a
Japanese apology for forcing South Korean women to work in wartime
brothels are complicating Obama’s efforts to focus on Asia.
“The notion is that America is going to re-balance in favor of Asia,
but the parties have to do more, as well, and Abe’s jingoistic gestures
threaten to make cooperation on anything a non-starter,” said Jeffrey
Kingston, the director of Asian studies at Temple University’s Tokyo
campus. “Washington has been trying to knock heads together with the
thinking that we can’t hold security issues hostage to history.”

Park said Friday at a news conference with Obama that she’s waiting for
Abe to deliver on his agreement for high-level talks to address the
issue of South Korea’s “comfort women” before she works with him.

“It’s very important we come up with truthful efforts for these
victims, because if we let go of this, we won’t be able to do anything
about the victims,” said Park, who’s seeking compensation for the 55
women still living.

Obama, who flew to Seoul after two nights in Tokyo, called the
treatment of the women a “terrible, egregious violation of human
rights,” but said he was convinced that Abe and Japan “recognize that
the past is something that has to be recognized honestly and fairly.”

Abe said at his own news conference with Obama that he’d visited a
memorial at the shrine that honors all war dead so that “never again
people would suffer in wars.”

Analysts say he thinks Japan has a 70-year record of peace to be proud
of and is tired of having its reputation tarnished by its wartime
activities.

But The Japan Times chastised Abe this week for the shrine controversy with an editorial titled, “When will Abe learn?”

The newspaper warned that Abe’s action would be interpreted “as
evidence that he supports the role the shrine played during Japan’s wars
in the 1930s and ’40s and that the prime minister is making light of
Japan’s aggression against other Asian countries during the period.”

It noted that Abe has said any leader would want to pay tribute to its
soldiers but that he ignores the shrine’s history as a “wartime state
ideological apparatus to mobilize the Japanese for war.”

South Korea and China have long memories about Japanese atrocities
during the war, and analysts say China seizes on Abe’s actions to paint
him as a dangerous provocateur.

That’s despite the fact that Japan spends just 1 percent of its gross
domestic product on defense and its military budget has remained
relatively stagnant for two decades. China has the second highest level
of defense spending in the world, after the U.S.

The U.S. embraces Abe’s economic plan, and he’s helped broker a deal
for a new U.S. military base on Okinawa. But he’s never escaped the
shadow of his grandfather, a former prime minister who was detained as a
war criminal but released.

“It’s part of him,” said Michael Cucek, a Tokyo-based research
associate for the MIT Center for International Studies. Cucek said he
thought the shrine was an “abomination” but that Abe should be able to
pay his respects.

“We really should not ask people to betray themselves as a condition of being a partner,” he said.
Most Japanese do not share Abe’s enthusiasm for reopening the record on their nation’s confrontational past.

The shrine and its gardens in downtown Tokyo are popular with residents
and tourists alike. Guidebooks tread delicately on the shrine’s
controversial roots, noting its checkered past and a history museum that
some say handles Japan’s military past lightly but touting its cherry
trees and the towering Shinto-style gate at the entrance, the tallest in
Japan.

Tomomi Fujimara, 32, who was visiting the shrine Friday with her
husband and sister, said it remained a place to pay respect to those who
fought during World War II, including her grandfather, who served on a
battleship.

“It’s unfortunate to see it always talked about as political,” said
Fujimara, who grew up in Tokyo and now lives in Oregon. “Today I am
honored to be here, and Prime Minister Abe should be able to visit it
just like anyone else.”

Abe wasn’t the only visitor sparking controversy. Pop heartthrob Justin
Bieber set off a virtual firestorm in China and South Korea this week
when he posted to Instagram a picture of himself at the shrine.

“While in Japan I asked my driver to pull over for which I saw a
beautiful shrine,” Bieber later wrote. “I was mislead to think the
Shrines were only a place of prayer. To anyone I have offended I am
extremely sorry. I love you China and I love you Japan.”

The complex crosscurrents at play underscore the delicate nature of
Obama’s attempts to forge alliances in the region and illustrate how
fragmented Asia remains decades after World War II, said Charles
Morrison, the president of the Hawaii-based East-West Center, an
independent, U.S.-government funded center that promotes better
relations among the United States, Asia and the Pacific.

“A lot of these issues, instead of going away after 70 years, seem to
be getting worse,” Morrison said. “It’s very frustrating for American
leaders who want allies to build constructive relationships with each
other.”

No comments:

LinkWithin

Put Guahu / About Me

This blog is dedicated to Chamorro issues, the use and revitalization of the Chamoru language and the decolonization of Guam. This blog also aims to inform people around the world about the history, culture and language and struggles of the Chamorro people, who are the indigenous islanders of Guam, Saipan, Tinian, Luta and Pagan in the Mariana Islands. Pues Haggannaihon ha', ya taitai na'ya, ya Si Yu'us Ma'ase para i finatto-mu.

Statcounter Code

The Revolution Will Not Be Haolified

THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE HAOLIFIEDTinige’ as Guahu - 2003 (updated 2008)

You will not be able to ignore it che’lu * This time you will not be able to blame it all on Anghet * You will not be able to change channels * And watch Fear Factor, Rev TV of Salamat Po Guam because * The Revolution will not be televised

The revolution will not be televised, nor will it be advertised * It will not be sponsored by the Good Guys at Moylan’s or the better guys at AK. * It will not be something easily explained by radio callers * Whether they be Positively Local, Definitively Settler, or Surprisingly Coconut * It will not be cornered by the Calvos and explained by Sabrina Salas * Matanane * After the story about the incoming B-52’s or 1000’s of Marines careening towards to Guam, and how we * should be economically energized and not terrorized. * Jon Anderson will have no TT anecdotes about it * and Chris Barnett won’t malafunkshun it because the revolution will not be televised

The revolution will not be televised or editorialized * It will not be something canabilized with two inches here two inches there * Dubious headlines everywhere * Lee Weber will not edit it * Joe Murphy will not put it in his pipe and smoke it * Nor dream about it, or tell others the wonders and blunders of it. * There will be no letters to the editor quoting scriptures or denying its constitutionality * And there will be no American flag inserts saying these three colors just don’t run * As the revolution will not be editorialized

The revolution will not be televised or politicized * It will not play the same old gayu games * And promise you that same old talonan things. * The revolution will not wave at you as you drive by on Marine Drive * And seduce you with its hardworking eyes. * It will not be territorial or popular, and not encourage you with maolek blue. * The revolution will not put marang salaman po after its speeches to get more Filipino votes in the next election because the revolution will not be politicized

The revolution will not be televised, not be theorized * It will not be something GCC or UOG friendly. * There will be no books at Bestseller offering to help you lose something in 90 days * Or Rachel Ray helping you cook the revolution of your way. * Ron McNinch will not survey it * and will not poll people about their revolution of choice. * There will be no WASC review report demanding accountability demanding autonomy * And no beachcombing carpetbaggers will proclaim their own terminal authority * Over the histories, the laws, the thinking of those for whom they see nothing but corrupt and corrupting inferiority * The revolution will not be colonized

The revolution will not be televised, not be supersized. * The revolution will not be something you can buy at Ross, or get at blue light cost * It is not just red rice, kelaguan uhang, or popcorn with Tobacco sauce. * It doesn’t come with Coke and it doesn’t fit on a fiesta plate. * The revolution will not make you gof sinexy, cure your jafjaf, or make fragrant your fa’fa’ * The revolution will not force you to be where America’s empire begins * Or where Japan’s golf courses and Gerry Yingling’s credit card debt ends. * You won’t need a credit card, or be charged for the tin foil to cover your balutan * As the revolution will not be economized

The revolution will not be televised, blownback or militarized * There will be no more physical ordnance buried in people’s lands * And no more patrionizing propaganda buried in people’s minds * The revolution will not get you cheaper cases of chicken or increased commissary privileges. * It will not make freedomless flags feel more comfortable in your hands * Or make uniforms fit more snugly around your mind. * The revolution will not deny racism or exploitation * And not create histories about landfalls of destiny * But instead publicize the racism and evils of American hegemony. * The revolution will not be subsidized by construction contracts or the race of Senator Inouye or Congressman Burton * It will not be laid waste to by daisy cut budgets or Medicare spending limits * Instead it will be sustained by deep memories that refuse to die * The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised and will not polarize based on blood or color * It will not make your skin lighter * It will not make your skin darker * It will not test your blood the way Hitler or Uncle Sam would of done * It will not hate some and love others based on their time of naturalization * Or incept date of their compacts of free association. * But the revolution will help some find comfort, find strength, find power * In their connections to the land and to each other * Allow some to discover the sovereignty that can be found in solidarity * The revolution will take and remake this consciousness that doesn’t need to be televised * But does need to be revolutionized * The revolution will not be haolified * The revolution will not be haolified